Site facelift

Posted On: Dec 31 2012

After 17 years being online, this website is finally receiving a facelift with many new features, articles, resources, and network information.

If you would like to add your name to the list of websites or resources/organizations, please let me know, and I will be happy to add you to the list. You may email me from following the Contact Link: http://www.fgmnetwork.org/mail/index.php

The new website should be launched in the next two weeks, so please stay tuned for details!

Best,

Dr. Marianne Sarkis, Director

KENYA: Mbeere District Schoolgirls Circumcised Secretely

Posted On: Dec 16 2011

BY Reuben Githinji

HUMAN rights lobby groups in Embu have raised concern over the violation of the rights of school-going children in Embu by their parents and grandparents in secretly circumcising them.

The human rights groups asked the government through the provincial administration to ensure secret Female Genital Mutilation is stamped out. They said the worst hit area is Mbeere North and South districts where girls are usually circumcised during holidays.

Secretary to the Embu Urban Local Forum Mary Wawira Njue, a consortium of local civil society in Embu county said the practice is negatively affecting the girls' education. She said her organisation is creating awareness on the irrelevance and dangers of the practice to end it. She said incidents of the practice come to the fore only when an operation aborts or becomes soar. She cited the case of a 12-year-old girl who was recently admitted at the Embu Provincial General Hospital bleeding from a circumcision exercise gone soar.

The standard six girl who had visited her great grandmother at Ishiara in Mbeere North district was allegedly forced by the great-grandmother to undergo the ritual. Wawira at the same time decried the increase in bhang trafficking, abuse of drugs and illicit drinks in the area among youth.

She said within this month alone bhang worth millions of shillings had been recovered by police in Embu town and Kamiu where a farmer was found growing it. Wawira said even as the local youth fight for their rights they should do so by being responsible in their behaviours. She blamed much of the woes affecting the youth to poor leadership from local leaders. She called on the local leaders to ensure they lead in establishment of local industries which are lacking in the area.

SOMALIA: MPs summon Puntland Ministers on FGM motion

Posted On: Dec 15 2011

GAROWE, Somalia Dec 13 2011 (Garowe Online) - Some Members of Parliament agreed to summon four ministers in Puntland State of Somalia due to a motion that has been regarded controversial that banned Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Puntland, Radio Garowe reports.

Puntland MPs met in the capital Garowe today to discuss summoning four Puntland Ministers that they felt broke certain religious rights of Muslims when they had passed a motion to ban FGM in Puntland.

UGANDA: Rights Activists Push for FGM End

Kapchorwa — Human rights activists have called upon the East Africa bloc to honour the commitment to end female genital mutilation, describing it as a discriminatory and a harmful practice to girls.

While addressing delegates from Kenya and Uganda and traditionalists at the 12th Sebei Culture Day celebrations on Monday held at Sebei College Tegeres, the Speaker of Parliament, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, said ending FGM is crucial to the success of two of the Millennium Development Goals: Improving maternal health and promoting gender equality.

BOOK: Girl with Three Legs by Soraya Mire

Posted On: Dec 16 2011

The Girl with Three Legs by Soraya Mire

When Soraya Miré was thirteen years old, the girls on the playground would taunt her, saying she could not play with them—not as long as she walked with three legs. Confused and hurt, she went to her mother, who mysteriously responded that the time had come for Soraya to receive her gift. Miré too soon discovers the horror of the “gift,” female genital mutilation (FGM), whereby a young girl’s healthy organs are chopped off not only to make her acceptable to a future husband but also to rein in her “wildness.”

In The Girl with Three Legs, Soraya Miré reveals what it means to grow up in a traditional Somali family, where girls’ and women’s basic human rights are violated on a daily basis. A victim of FGM and an arranged marriage to an abusive cousin, Miré was also witness to the instability of Somalia’s political landscape: her father was a general for the military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, and her family moved in the inner circles of Somalia’s elite. In her journey to recover from the violence done to her, Miré realizes FGM is the ultimate child abuse, a ritual of mutilation handed down from mother to daughter and protected by the word “culture.”

DOWNLOADABLE FILM: The Cut

The Cut: A Documentary

“The Cut” is a short documentary about Mary (14 years old) and Alice (early 20’s) from Kenya. Both are affected by the traditional rite of passage into womanhood: genital cutting.

Mary and her community are preparing for her ceremonial cutting.

Alice is studying to be a social worker to work against female genital mutilation. As the first in her community to refuse the practice, she has paid a high price for her choice to break with tradition.

Alice tells of the different myths she encounters in the community around her, as to why circumcision is practiced. Mary, on the other hand, has no voice. She just goes through the preparations and rituals in silence.

Global Consultation on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting

This publication contains rich research findings concerning global trends and the prevalence of female genital mutilation/cutting and its linkages with maternal and newborn health. It describes changing patterns and practices, including medicalization, and analyzes the threat FGM/C poses to the achievement of Millennium Development Goals as well as its economic and health costs. It identifies important lessons and discusses in detail case studies as well as the application of theories as a basis for accelerating the abandonment process.

It also addresses the needs for closing gaps in law enforcement, building capacity, mobilizing resources and building global partnerships. This extensive knowledge -- which was shared by research institutions, foundations, lawyers, medical professionals, religious scholars, development partners and NGOs -- would be difficult to find elsewhere.

Site facelift

Posted On: Dec 31 2012

After 17 years being online, this website is finally receiving a facelift with many new features, articles, resources, and network information.

If you would like to add your name to the list of websites or resources/organizations, please let me know, and I will be happy to add you to the list. You may email me from following the Contact Link: http://www.fgmnetwork.org/mail/index.php

The new website should be launched in the next two weeks, so please stay tuned for details!

Female circumcision or female genital cutting (FGC) is an ancient cultural tradition, which is practiced in many African countries, but also in some areas of the Middle-East and Asia. Past twenty years, as a consequence of increased mobility and migration, female genital cutting has become known all over the world, even in the Nordic countries.

By medical experts, human rights activists, feminists, and also many circumcised women themselves, the practice is seen to be harmful for the health of girls and women, and to violate the human rights of a child and a woman. Recent years also some religious authorities have openly opposed the continued practice of female genital cutting, at least the most radical operations. Furthermore, legislation in almost all Europe as well as many counties, where the practice of female genital cutting is widely spread, forbid the act. Moreover, in Europe and Africa several campaigns and projects against FGC, both on national and international levels, have been conducted.

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